Denver men’s basketball ended their home opener in Hamilton Gymnasium with an emphatic 97-76 win over Cal-Poly. After a hard-fought loss to open the season at UC San Diego, DU put on another strong performance, the beginning of what Denver hopes will be a season to turn the program around.

Last season DU basketball had a disappointing 15-17 overall record, finishing 6-12 in Summit Conference play. The program struggled with three-point shooting and playmaking. Denver ranked last in the conference in turnover margin, averaging 15 turnovers a game, and ranked 9 out of 10 in assist/turnover ratio (0.76). They ranked 7th in assists per game (11.3).

They finished the season shooting 32% from three-point range, ranking 8th in the conference. DU finished the season with 144 made three-pointers, good for last in the conference.

The coaching staff looked to address these problems in the off-season, welcoming seven new players to the program. After their first two games of non-conference play, especially in their dominating home opener, the team looks like they’ve found their new identity.

“We took a hard look at the team and identified what we thought were our deficiencies,” Head Coach Jeff Wulbrun said. “I think we did a really nice job of that. We targeted three-point shooting, ball-handling and playmaking. I think that throughout this season those areas will have improved a lot from a year ago.”

Denver is already showing flashes of this improvement, finishing the game 10-21 from three-point range, shooting 46.7%. They finished with 19 assists to Cal-Poly’s 11.

Denver also displayed their strengths from last season, outrebounding the Mustangs 41-30 and shooting an efficient 55% from the floor to Cal-Poly’s 43%. Denver shut down the Mustangs three-point attack, limiting them to 5-21 from beyond the arc.

“You know, we played to our strengths a year ago, and our strengths were attacking the paint, and not shooting threes. This year we have a different team, we brought in a lot of talented shooters in the off-season,” Coach Wulbrun said. “It’s really a very different team, we played to our strengths a year ago and we’re certainly going to try to do the same this year”

Fifth-year guard and leader of the team Tommy Bruner spoke bluntly on the team’s back-court concerns from last season.

“When you have Jaxon, a high-level shooter from Utah, [it] helps us. When you have Isaiah from Houston, Texas, 40% shooter from three, [it] helps us. When you have Tyson from JUCO also shooting 40%, [it] helps us. Even a guy like Isaiah Carr at 7 feet can help us stretch the floor. We definitely took care of our deficiencies from last year,” Bruner said. 

Bruner is also enjoying the chemistry of the new-look roster. 

“The locker room feels great. You know, on a good day, it’s great, on a bad day, it’s great. If we win: great; if we lose: great. We haven’t any kind of problems in the locker room, and that comes from how much we hang out in our free time. We all hang out at home, hang out at the gym, and that translates to the locker room and to the court,” Bruner said. 

Bruner was named to the All-Summit Newcomer Team last season, while also receiving an Honorable Mention nod for the All-Summit League team. Before the start of this season, he was named to the All-Summit Preseason Second Team. Bruner likes to be recognized for his accolades but does not dwell on his individual accomplishments. 

“My goals are to be in the best shape of my life and to keep the guys together this year. At the start of every season, everyone has a big picture for what could lie ahead. My only job, my only goal for this year is to keep the picture big; that’s my job,” he said. 

Coach Wulbrun thinks very highly of his fifth-year leader, and, so far, calls him one of the best players of the leaders. 

“Tommy is one of the best players in the Summit League this year for sure. He’s a First Team All-Summit Player in my mind and could be a candidate for Player of the Year,” he said. 

Another player to look out for is junior forward Touko Tainamo who is in his third season with Denver. Over the summer, Tainamo represented his home country of Finland in the 2023 FISU World University games, where he averaged 10.4 points and 8.4 rebounds a game. Coach Wulbrun was impressed with his success. 

“He’s a different player. The look in his eye, his level of confidence, you can tell. He played at a high level of competition at the University Games in China. He’s poised at a new level,” Wulbrun said. 

Tainamo finished their season opener against UC San Diego with a double-double, recording game-highs with 31 points and 18 rebounds. He nearly recorded another double-double against Cal-Poly, finishing the game with 13 points and 9 boards. 

“You know he’ll get you 20 or 30 or he’ll get you 10 with 12 rebounds, but he’s the same guy day in and day out. He screams his ass off, he plays his ass off on defense. He’s just the kind of guy you want to play with,” Bruner said. 

The team is aware of their potential this season, and it showed in their electric outing on Thursday night. Coach Wulbrun feels the buzz, but spoke modestly on their goals for this season.

“All we’re focused on right now is continued progress, we can’t make it more difficult than it needs to be. If we focus each week on continued progress in specific areas of the game, we know the results will follow. Our only goal is to move the program forward,” Wulbrun said. 

Bruner echoed this sentiment, “We want to keep that picture big, the biggest that it can be. Whether it’s game one or game twenty-seven, I want the picture to be big,” he said.

The Crimson and Gold will make the trip to Mobile, Alabama this week for the Jaguar Classic, with games against Nicholls State this Wednesday the 15th, followed by SIEU on the 16th and South Alabama on the 17th.